Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Museums, Menageries, Climatology

    Ellen Symonds was disappointed that it was raining, since it meant that she could not go to the British Museum as her father had promised. It transpired that she did not even know what the British Museum was, and her brother laughed at her, observing: 'so Ellen you are very unhappy because you cannot go to see something, and you do not know what—perhaps you expected to be introduced to a fine collection of wild beasts, or an exhibition of wax-work'. Ellen discovered that her sisters had gone to their father's study, where they were discussing 'the curiosities they expected to see' and he was 'explaining several things to them', but she declined to join them. (27) She wished that she lived in a country where it never rained, but her mother pointed out the inconveniences and dangers of such a climate. Ellen's sisters returned, and Sophia stated that she was glad that they had not gone to the museum that day, since now she knew 'so much more' about the exhibits that she would be 'doubly interested' to see them (29).